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Electric Motor Use Varies by Industry

Did you know that 50% of all electricity consumed in the United States is from electric motors? Motors, pumps, and fans also account for 8% of that industrial sector’s total fuel consumption.

According to the US Energy Information Administration, demands on the power grid is substantially impacted because of the wide use of rotating apparatus across many industries. However, the increase of #EnergyEfficient machinery offsets the cost of the increased electrical power, leading to flat levels of the consumption of electricity by industrial equipment.

The level of electricity use in manufacturing or other activities has broader implications for total energy use. It takes three units of primary energy (from fuels such as coal, nuclear, and natural gas) to generate one unit of electricity, meaning that increased electricity use has a disproportionate effect on the amount of total primary energy required to support site-level energy use. Reported electricity use is based on energy consumption for end use (delivered energy).

Both fossil fuels and electricity are used to power manufacturing processes. Fossil fuels may be used to drive turbines, reciprocating engines, and other prime movers that provide mechanical power for rotating machinery. Electric motors can also be used for the same purposes as well as for pumps, fans, and air compressors. In total, electricity powers about 89% of motors in manufacturing. Electric motors are used in a wide variety of materials handling and materials processing operations (e.g., machining).

About 10% of delivered energy used in manufacturing is derived from industrial machinery. In some instances, that percentage can approach 25%. However, the use of machine drives in energy-intensive manufacturing processes accounts for about 70% of total manufacturing #ElectricMotor energy consumption (blue slices of the pie chart).

According to the US Department of Energy, electricity costs make up almost 96% of the total lifecycle cost of a motor.

As a result, energy efficiency measures can have a large effect on the total ownership costs related to machine drives, including the use of optimally sized energy-efficient motors and proper motor maintenance.